Dale Pollard
Psalm 50.11
“I know every bird of the mountains, and the Ziz of the field is Mine.”
If a simpleton took a gander at Psalm 50:11 he would likely assume that the verse spoke of a mere bird or some generic beast. But over the centuries, Jewish interpreters transformed the mysterious Hebrew word ziz into one of the largest creatures of biblical lore. A colossal, winged monster that ruled the skies, much as Leviathan ruled the sea, and the Behemoth ruled the land.
When Ziz Became a Giant
The verse itself does not describe its size– that detail comes later.
During the centuries after the Old Testament, Jewish writers began pairing three enormous creatures together:
Leviathan — ruler of the sea
Behemoth — ruler of the land
Ziz — ruler of the air
This titanic trio appears in several ancient Jewish writings.
One of the oldest surviving descriptions appears in the Babylonian Talmud, where the bird is portrayed as unimaginably large.
The rabbis write:
“An egg of the ziz once fell and shattered three hundred cedar trees, and its contents flooded sixteen cities.” — Babylonian Talmud, Bekhorot 57b
Although clearly presented in a legendary style, the story emphasizes the bird’s extraordinary size. Another famous tradition says:
“It’s ankles rest upon the earth while its head reaches the heavens.”
— Midrash, Leviticus Rabbah 22:10
The point was clear; the Ziz was thought to dwarf every other bird.
Perhaps the best-known description comes from the Midrash, which says the bird’s wingspan was so immense that opening its wings could darken the sun.
The traditional version states:
“When the Ziz spreads its wings, it obscures the light of the sun.” — Midrash
Psalms on Psalm 50
This sort of publicity helped the Ziz become the flying counterpart to Leviathan.
An Extinct Giant Bird?
The Bible never identifies the Ziz with any known species. Because later Jewish tradition describes it as an enormous flying creature, it’s been compared with extinct giant birds such as Argentavis magnificens, Pelagornis sandersi, or even giant pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus. These identifications remain speculative and are not found in ancient Jewish sources. Whether understood literally, symbolically, or as legendary embellishment, the Ziz remains one of the most fascinating creatures associated with the Bible—a mysterious being whose reputation grew from a single obscure Hebrew word into the greatest bird in Jewish imagination.
Note: The descriptions of the Ziz blotting out the sun, towering into the heavens, and laying obnoxiously large eggs come from later rabbinic and midrashic tradition—not from the biblical text itself. The Bible only briefly mentions the ziz without describing it as gigantic.
The Hebrew word ziz appears only a few times in the Old Testament (Psalm 50:11, 80:13). The word probably comes from a root meaning “to move,” “to swarm,” or “living thing.”
